Ted Bishop must resign PGA presidency after sexist ‘Lil Girl’ comments aimed at Ian Poulter

Ted Bishop, fresh off the debacle of the Ryder Cup, took the level of debate to a new low Thursday night when he called European team player Ian Poulter a “Lil Girl” for his less-than-flattering comments about Nick Faldo in his newly released autobiography.

Bishop deleted the tweet, but of course that didn’t mean it was lost to history (screencap via Ryan Ballengee)

He expanded on the tweet with a Facebook note, but the tone and message were the same (via Ballengee):

The usually loquacious and confrontational Poulter was economical in his response to Bishop.

”Is being called a “lil girl” meant to be derogatory or a put down?” Poulter told Golf Channel. “That’s pretty shocking and disappointing, especially coming from the leader of the PGA of America. No further comment.”

The finger-pointing and insults began immediately after Team USA lost 16.5-11.5 to the Euros at Gleneagles last month and Phil Mickelson lashed out at Bishop’s hand-picked captain, Tom Watson, for his lack of leadership. Several players from both sides weighed in, including Poulter, who used his book to bash former European captain Nick Faldo for recent remarks he made about Sergio Garcia.

In his autobiography, “No Limits,” Poulter wrote that players had “lost a lot of respect” for Faldo after the Golf Channel analyst said during a Gleneagles broadcast that Garcia was “useless” during the 2008 Ryder Cup captained by the six-time major champion.

Bishop, no doubt smarting over the recent shellacking of his squad and perhaps looking to get off the hot seat of his own making, unwisely went to Twitter to take out his frustrations after appearing with Faldo Thursday at a junior golf program at The Greenbrier. We and many others immediately responded to the tweet, which Bishop quickly deleted from his account. Bishop dug himself an even deeper hole when he went on at greater length on his Facebook page in a post that was also expunged shortly after publication.

The PGA stated that Bishop “realized that his post was inappropriate and promptly removed it,” according to the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson, who received an e-mail from the head of an organization whose mission is supposedly to grow the game of golf through including all demographics, including girls and women.

“Obviously I could have selected some different ways to express my thoughts on Poulter’s remarks,” Bishop wrote Ferguson. “Golf had always been a sport where respect was shown to its icons. That seems to have gone by the wayside.’’

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Yeah, insinuating that being female was somehow an insult was probably not the best way to go with that. CBS Sports announcer James Brown, in decrying domestic violence in football and society at large, last month eloquently denounced such expressions of contempt for women.

“It starts with how we view women,” Brown said in kicking off Thursday Night Football in the wake of the Ray Rice incident. “Our language is important. For instance, when a guy says, ‘You throw the ball like a girl,’ or, ‘You’re a little sissy,’ it reflects an attitude that devalues women and attitudes will eventually manifest in some fashion.”

Bishop’s two-year term will end next month at his group’s annual meeting but we don’t need a silly task force to determine that the PGA of America must demand his immediate resignation after such ill-considered and totally inappropriate comments.